Three Illustrated Youth Soccer Drills

The youth soccer drills presented on this page can be printed but not modified and published elsewhere. If you want to exclusively use the drills for offline you can do so but as I said never publish them somewhere else on the net.

You can use them exclusively for offline use, but if you want to show someone online you need to link to this page only. I want to help as many people as I can, and having control over the content helps me do just that!

Position Game

Free Youth Soccer Drills

Purpose

Improve your player's possession and passing abilities.

Drill Set Up

You should set up the drill by creating a field (25 x 25) yards. Use cones or similar to create the lines. Divide your team into two teams.

One team should have 2 more players then the other one. For example: If the team A has 10 players then the team B should have 8 players.

Performing the Drill

The A team should try to keep possession of the ball while team B should do everything they can to clear the ball away. The A team scores by passing the ball ten times in a row to each other. The B team scores by clearing the ball away.

Variations

Restrict the amount of passes. You can also increase the difficulty by adding one more player to the defending one.

Equipment Needed

Cones, 5-10 balls.

Summary

Encourage your players to use both feet while participating in this drill. Make sure also that your players really understand that the game without the ball is equally important as the game with the ball.

Head Over

Free Youth Soccer Drills

Purpose

Improve your players heading skills.

Drill Set Up

Create groups of three players. All groups should be positioned in a line. Player one and three should be about 7-8 yards apart from each other. Player 2 should be positioned in the middle of them.

Performing the Drill

Player one should start by tossing the ball over player two to player three. Player three should head the ball back directly to player one.

Variations

Player three could head the ball to the player in the middle. However, the middle standing player should not grip the ball by using his arms. He should instead try to flick the ball back to player one by using the top of his head.

Equipment Needed

One ball per group.

Summary

Knowing how to head a ball properly is critical in soccer. I know by experience that many younger players don't know how to head the ball properly.

You should therefore monitor all players during this drill and study whether they are heading the ball properly or not.

Horse in the middle

Free Youth Soccer Drills

Purpose

Improve your players defense skills.

Drill Set Up

Divide your players in groups of three. Create a rectangle by using cones (or similar) 15 x 10 feet wide.

Two of your players should stand at each side of the rectangle providing each one with a ball. The third player should stand in the middle of the rectangle.

Performing the Drill

The two players at the side should try to pass the ball in various ways back to each other without letting the player in the middle touch the ball. Switch the roles after 3 minutes.

Variations

Increase the group with one more player. This player should also be in the middle. By doing this the sideline players will have much harder to perform successful passes to each others.

Equipment Needed

Cones, Balls.

Summary

As with any other soccer drill, your players really need to put big effort in performing the drill right in order to improve their soccer skills. You should therefore monitor all groups and evaluate their performance.